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“Friendship is born at the moment when one … says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself…”
I would not love, unless I was loved first and loved the most. I would be nothing at all, if I could not be first.
I would not sit silently wasting away as the world passed me by, like Mother. I was determined to be heard, to have my thoughts considered.
Lies are the only defenses the lowly have against the powerful.
I stared up into lucid brown eyes. Snowflakes clung to his dark lashes. My lips parted, but I wasn’t sure what I meant to say, my words stolen by the intensity of his stare. I blinked quickly, then I glanced down to see that he’d drawn a dagger. He sheathed it now—clearly he didn’t see me as a threat. I wasn’t sure whether to be offended by this.
The sounds ricocheted inside my skull until I thought my sanity would surely slip.
Yet I was not so naive as to think that by lifting the noose from her throat, it would not end up around mine.
crane among wolves.”
“A crane among the wolves,”
Her other book!?!?!?
Everyone must choose the paths they will walk. And when you choose, remember to count the cost. Do not live with regrets.”
“Save your teacher, if she means that much to you. It is those you love that make a wretched life worth living.”
“When the time comes,” he said quietly, holding my gaze the way he held my hand. “You watch out for me. And I will always watch out for you.”
“Revenge begets revenge; the anger is unquenchable. We become the monsters we are trying to punish. Justice, however, brings closure, and that is what I want. It can only be achieved by remaining sober-minded and rational.
We continued to talk until my mind burned out, nothing but smoke curling up from the wick. I tried to concentrate, but when Eojin began nodding off, I told myself I’d rest my eyes for a bit. I laid my head down on the table and must have drifted off, for I woke to find pre-dawn shadows slumbering in the gray room, and very dim light streaming in through the hanji screens. As my mind reoriented itself, I noticed I wasn’t alone on the table. My head lay resting on my folded arms, my brows pressed against Eojin’s, our noses nearly touching. I watched as his eyelids flinched, moving around in a
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10/10 - i ship it?
I wanted to love and be loved. I wanted to be known. I wanted to be understood and accepted.
And being with Eojin slipped unwanted shadows into my head, dreams of what that might feel like—to be cherished, like in the love stories in Jieun’s personal library. Yet I was not so naive as to believe that I, a servant girl, could be anything more to Eojin than what Mother was to Lord Shin. And I was not so desperate and foolish as to want anything more. I had his friendship. It was enough. It had to be enough.
Read me like a book…
I prayed that I would not need to use this dagger, and at the same time thought, I would never hurt anyone with this. But perhaps this was what the killer had once believed, too—until they had lost the most precious thing in their life. I wondered what that might be for me. What it might take for me to end the life of another.
maybe Eojin? OR Nurse Jeongsu? Or her brother?
A part of me feared this promise was meant for everyone but me.
She is me and i am her
We walked quietly, and I kept the brim of my hat lowered to hide the smile that tugged at my lips. With Eojin, the mountains rose high and the fields of swaying grass enclosed us in a small world of our own where it was easy to forget—even for the briefest moment—the direness of our circumstance and the sadness still lurking under my ribs.
“but now I must finish the deed. You wished to investigate together, and so it shall end for you—together.”
the question he’d wanted to know since the beginning of the investigation. Glancing over my shoulder, I asked, “Why is Nurse Minji still alive? How did she escape the massacre?” After a heavy pause, Inyeong replied, “She cried out ‘eomma.’ When I was about to kill her, that is what she said. Mother.”
I prayed he wouldn’t become one more person I would need to remember.
daughter. Yet the ordinary, I realized, became like cherished treasure when taken—torn away, stripped, and left to rot in the mountains,
Wait for me.
no longer cooped up in a cage of her own making.
afraid that he’d forgotten me. And equally afraid that he still cared.
“When I am in need of medical advice, may I come visit you? My health is no longer what it once was…” Pushing down all my emotions, I offered him a small nod. I had parted ways with him as daughter and father … but perhaps we could come together as uinyeo and patient.
Some dreams, I’d learned, were meant to fade away. And to let go of them didn’t mean to let go of myself, but to release the life I’d imagined I wanted.
“I won’t let you go, no matter what.”
occurred to me that love wasn’t all that I’d feared it to be. I had imagined that it was a wildfire that incinerated everything in its path. Instead, it felt as ordinary and extraordinary as waking up to a new day.
lashes lowered, his ears bright red, Eojin ducked his head and pressed a soft kiss against my cheek. “There is only you.” His words caressed me, winding themselves around my soul. “There will only ever be you. I promise, Hyeon-ah.” Tiptoeing, I wrapped my arms around his neck, the book I held dangled against his back as I found his lips. He seemed stunned at first, then he smiled against my kiss, and I could hear his thoughts: You always surprise me. I smiled, too. I know.
For those who want a more extensive account of Prince Sado’s life, I highly recommend the book Memoirs of Lady Hyegyoung.
OUR BOOKS ARE FRIENDS FOR LIFE.
Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere
Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle.
Write stories that challenge and slightly terrify you.
He found the spot where he usually waited for Hyeon, right by the wall near the back entrance. Sometimes, when she was occupied until late in the night, he would venture inside and sit next to her in the empty medical office; she, focused on her task, and he, notebook opened to ponder over his latest investigation. Their quiet companionship had become something he cherished. “Eojin!” He stood straight, warmth kindling in his chest at the sound of her voice. A silhouette appeared around the corner, hurrying his way, and when the slender figure slipped into his embrace, he knew it was her
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He slipped out a garakji, a double ring meant to be worn by a wife. The first time they had stared down at a garakji, it had been in the middle of an investigation. A married woman wears a double ring throughout her lifetime, Hyeon had whispered then. But in death, one is buried with her and the other is returned to her spouse. “I meant it,” Eojin whispered, “when I said there would only ever be you.”
he saw clarity bloom in her gaze,
“But I can promise you this. Even in the next lifetime, I will always choose you, Hyeon. Even if you do not choose me in return.”
